In recent years, as a record medium that is recordable and removable from a recoding and reproducing apparatus, that has a relatively large recording capacity, and that is suitable for recording AV (Audio/Video) data composed of video data and audio data, a DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) having a recording capacity of 4.7 GB (Giga Byte) or more has become common. Patent document “Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-350251” describes an image capturing apparatus that records DVD-Video format data to a recordable type DVD.
Since this recordable type DVD uses the UDF (Universal Disk Format) as a file system, a UDF based computer can access this recordable type DVD. Since the UDF contains the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) 9660 based format, various types of file systems used for computer apparatus can access the recordable type DVD. When video data and audio data are recorded as a file to this recordable type DVD, since its affinity to other apparatus such as computer apparatus increases, recorded data can be more effectively used.
When video data and audio data are recorded as a file, various types of management information are created and recorded together with the video data and audio data to the record medium so as to easily reproduce the recorded video data and audio data.
As an example of management information, information that associates address information of a file of video data with time information can be contemplated (for convenience, this information is referred to as pointer information). With this pointer information as file management information, a desired reproduction position of video data stored in the file can be easily accessed.
As video data and audio data are recorded to the record medium, such management information is created, for example, by a CPU (Central Processing Unit) that controls, for example, a recording apparatus with a RAM (Random Access Memory) as a work memory. For example, while video data are being recorded, the CPU associates time information with address information of video data that are recorded and stores the associated information in the RAM. For example, when the record medium is ejected from the recording apparatus or the power OFF operation is performed for the recording apparatus, the management information stored in the RAM is read from the RAM and written to the record medium.
The management information is stored in the RAM and written to the record medium at timings when the record medium is ejected or the power OFF operation for the recording apparatus is performed. Thus, for example, when the power of the recording apparatus is unexpectedly stopped not through the normal power OFF procedure, a problem of which the management information stored in the RAM is lost occurs. When the management information is lost, it will become difficult to normally reproduce video data and audio data that have been recorded on the record medium.
As situations in which the power is unexpectedly stopped, it may be contemplated that the power cord is suddenly pulled out or the battery pack used as the power supply is abruptly dropped out. It is likely that these situations relatively easily occur in the normal use of the recording apparatus.
On the other hand, to prevent management information from being lost due to such an unexpected power stop, it can be contemplated that created management information is written to the record medium when the record stop operation is performed and the file that stores video data and audio data is closed. However, to write management information to the record medium, it takes a time to some extent. Thus, there is a problem of which even if the record start operation is tried immediately after the record stop operation, it is likely that the record start operation is not accepted.
This means that when the recording apparatus is, for example, a video camera apparatus that records an image captured by an image capturing device as video data to the record medium, an important image capturing timing will be lost.